We offer peace and amity to all the neighbouring states and their peoples, and invite them to cooperate with the independent Jewish nation for the common good of all. The State of Israel is ready to contribute its full share to the peaceful progress and development of the Middle East. (From Proclamation of the State of Israel, 5 Iyar 5708; 14 May 1948)

Wednesday, 29 February 2012

Silvan Shalom stresses on American television that Iran's lunatic regime with its expansionist ambitions in the Middle East must not be allowed to obtain the nuclear bomb, and not only for Israel's sake...

Tuesday, 28 February 2012

The cerebral and always interesting British blogger Edgar Davidson, who has previously drawn attention to antisemitism in the so-called Arab Spring, has an important post regarding antisemitism among the Syrian demonstrators.

As well, there's a current article on the website of the Australia/Israel & Jewish Public Affairs Council (AIJAC) website that begins:

"Two recent blog posts by bloggers of Arab descent bravely tackle the internally- taboo issue of antisemitism in the Arab world, both claiming that it is a well entrenched belief system which undermines the development of pluralistic, democratic societies in the Middle East, as the Arab Spring revolutions enter their second year."

The article (hat tip: Shirlee) goes on to describe the bloggers' analyses. Access it here

Monday, 27 February 2012

"We are African-American, Arab, Asian, European-American, Latina/o, and South Asian. We are Jews, Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, atheists, & agnostics. We are educators, students, librarians, designers, non-profit workers, medical professionals, business people and artists. We are people of all ages. We are like you," coos the 16,000-member strong Park Slope Food Coop in Brooklyn.

"We believe that the PSFC should join the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS). BDS is a nonviolent tactic recently adopted by the decades-long Palestinian movement to end Israel’s violent and illegal occupation of their lands, gain equal rights, and achieve peace, freedom and economic stability.

We think that joining the BDS movement will help send a message to Israel that it must honor international law and human rights. It will also make the PSFC a more welcoming place for all people who want justice realized in Palestine. And taken in a larger context, we believe that BDS is one of multiple ways to participate in the global struggle against all forms of oppression."

'I can just see it now: Prime Minister Netanyahu’s red phone is ringing, it’s 3 in the morning, Israel’s ambassador to the US is on the line – Sir, we’re losing the food co-op near Prospect Park. If the co-op boycotts us, we’re doomed. – Fine, fine, just tell those settlers to pack up the suitcases and get on the trucks, they’ll understand…

Naturally, this whole boycott and sanctions thing is not at all about the realities of the Middle East, concerning which the sum total of most Americans’ knowledge can be written on the pinky fingernail of a small child. This is about the Jews of Park Slope being embarrassed about their other country and how colonialist it makes them look at mixers. Because they clearly write:

“It will also make the PSFC a more welcoming place for all people who want justice realized in Palestine. And taken in a larger context, we believe that BDS is one of multiple ways to participate in the global struggle against all forms of oppression.”

Naturally, we’re against oppression everywhere, but we’ll go after the Jews first.'

Update: More on the PSFC website here - what I earlier described above as its website is in fact a BDS website that carries its statement. Fortunately, there's a fightback: see this blog and Like the Facebook page"Stop BDS at Park Slope Food Coop"

"The recent news has already started impacting the market; tell us about the indications of this recent hike in crude prices."

Foote:

"The basic facts are that Europe has very tiny amounts of energy resources. They have to import almost everything they need. And Iran has been a good supplier to them.

While the Saudis and some others may have claimed that they will make up the differences, it will take time to change shipments, refineries and get things ready. So, there will be a gap.

And as you noted, prices will increase short term, at least, if not longer."

Press TV:

"How will the oil market look like if Iran stops exports to all European countries?"

Foote:

"It certainly will be an increase in prices at least for the short term and maybe even longer term. I mean, Europe’s energy needs will not go away anytime soon. They are desperately starving for oil and other resources.

This problem has gone back for any Iranian who’s ever studied Iranian history, they know this story. You had the D’Arcy Concession which led to the creation of BP. Winston Churchill called it a fairyland beyond all belief for the Brits, that they got almost all of Iran’s resources for nearly nothing.

In the early 1950s, British and French ships stopped oil cargo ships from going to and from Iran successfully, and were able to bring down Mosaddegh’s government.

They think they can do it one more time hopefully with countries such as China needing the energy and not being able to be stopped. They won’t be able to make it this time.

In the past they’ve had great success in robbing the Iranian people of their resources at nearly zero prices."

Press TV:

"Would you say that it's already apparent that Europe will have more to lose than to gain with these US-pushed sanctions?"

Foote:

Absolutely, for an energy poor region of the world, they have no business playing these kinds of energy games just to satisfy the Zionist totalitarians who want to control the entire world." [My emphasis]

For more on Professor Foote see this article and its comments and this

Sunday, 26 February 2012

Here's a disgusting spoof on the Shoah by the antisemitic French "comedian" Dieudonné (surname M'bala). This despicable production was apparently aided by the Iranians. (Hat tip: reader Rita, who spotted it on the invaluable MEMRI TV channel)

Friday, 24 February 2012

Prominent Anglo-Jewish pro-Israel activist Jonathan Hoffman (pictured), a longterm leading figure in the Zionist Federation, has written an Open Letter as follows to the Vice-Chancellor of Middlesex University, Professor Michael Driscoll. I understand that blogger Richard Millett will be describing the events herein described in more detail, but meanwhile here's Jonathan's letter, which also appears on the JewishChronicle blogs:

Writes Jonathan Hoffman:

'Last night‘s Middlesex University Palestine Society meeting at Hendon was every bit as vile as might have been expected given the speakers – Ken O’Keefe, Ghada Karmi and ‘Jihad’ Jenny Tonge. O’Keefe was subsequently reported to the Police for aggravated Public Order Act Offences.

It being Hendon there were quite a few Israel supporters in the audience and O’Keefe’s worst statement was to them:

You like the Nazis [he meant the Germans who resisted the Nazis] have a special obligation [to oppose Israel]”.

You must know that Jew/Nazi comparisons are antisemitic:
http://fra.europa.eu/fraWebsite/material/pub/AS/AS-WorkingDefinition-dra...

He also repeated the "troofers'" lie that “Israel and Mossad was directly involved in 9/11.

Tonge alleged falsely that “the Jewish Constitution is being changed to make Israel a Jewish-only state”

O’Keefe falsely claimed that Mandela compared Israel to apartheid South Africa. The truth is that in April 2000 Mandela came to London and spoke to the Board of Deputies of British Jews. He spoke of the need for Israel to leave the lands taken in 1967 but not unless there was first recognition of the Jewish State by the Arab States: “I added a second position, that Israel cannot be expected to withdraw from the Arab territories which she legitimately conquered when the Arab States wanted to whip her out of the map of the world.” No mention of ‘apartheid’ in Israel – from a man who spent 27 years as a prisoner of the loathsome apartheid regime in South Africa.

O’Keefe said that Israel’s objective was “to maintain perpetual conflict”

Karmi said that Israelis behave towards the Palestinians as if they were a subhuman species. She said that if a newborn baby is born and dies at a checkpoint the Israelis are pleased because that’s “another Palestinian gone”.

Karmi always says “it is not antisemitic to criticise Israel”. When she says it, I always challenge her to identify an instance when a critic of Israel has been incorrectly labelled “antisemitic” but she never can. This device is simply an attempt to delegitimise complaints of antisemitism – and is therefore itself racist.

Karmi said that 250,000 Israeli Arabs had had property confiscated under the Absentee Property Law (1950). Not true. The Law only applied to people who fled in 1948, not to those who stayed!. (And the Law only applied to long-term absentees. Moreover decisions under the Law are subject to judicial review (as is the case with all administrative decision-making in Israel)).

A shameful meeting. Universities have a duty of care to their students. What action do you propose to take?'

"For the first time since 1991, more than 6 in 10 Americans – 63% – say their sympathies in the Middle East situation lie more with the Israelis than with the Palestinians. Fifteen percent side more with the Palestinians, down slightly from recent years, while a combined 23% favor both sides, favor neither side, or have no opinion."

Thursday, 23 February 2012

At the relaunch in New South Wales of Parliamentary Friends of Israel last evening, Israel's ambassador to Australia, Yuval Rotem, slammed the local BDS movement as represented by such Greens as Fiona Byrne and Senator Lee Rhiannon.

"It has been close to a year since the last State election since Marrickville and the BDS issue found a national stage. It was one of the achievements of not just the Australian Jewish community but the Coalition and the Labor Party that BDS faced an abrupt rejection on that stage.

The concern throughout NSW was that the row during the BDS debates was expected. Commonsense does not comply with a local council self-imposing economic sanctions on one nation which is locked in a struggle for peace. [My emphasis]

Senator Lee Rhiannon’s Greens looked likely to pick up a cluster of seats”in the NSW State election but were left demoralised finishing behind Labor on primary votes in the only seat they ended up winning.

The candidate for Marrickville, Fiona Byrne, tripped over herself in many public statements…confused that her Utopian vision of a world with a weakened Israel was poorly received outside the confines of her urban hamlet.

BDS in Australia has since then become another a failed movement of radical activists which shamefully attached itself to a municipal council for a few months.

This humiliating public defeat of the BDS was an achievement of the people in this room. The politicians, Liberal, National, Labor and some Greens. When we hear about BDS now, it’s not coming from the mouths of prominent politicians or mayors or respected journals. It’s been shouted from poorly-attended protests or the back of police cars or from Communists who stayed with Stalin.

One year on and the movement in New South Wales to undermine the economy in the Middle East’s only democracy is as dead as Fiona Byrne’s brief career in international diplomacy."

The ambassador continued:

"I thank the people in this room on behalf of the State of Israel for their courage during that time. I thank Premier Barry O’Farrell and his colleagues for their uncompromising stand for the future of that Council. I thank the Leader of the Opposition John Robertson and his colleagues for mounting the progressive case for the future of Israel… and especially I want thank those Greens MPs and candidates who stood tall and opposed BDS citing their own values of principal and justice for which some of their colleagues have no tolerance. I thank all involved who have helped see off this anti-Jewish and anti-Israel sentiment in our community. ..in our newspapers on our streets we must also thank the voters of New South Wales.”

Of Marrickviile Council, which overturned its espousal of BDS and has a new mayor, he said:

“I encourage them to learn more about my tiny, tiny miraculous country in the Middle East, awash with the principals of democracy, values freedom and a culture not enjoyed by the autocratic and theocratic regimes that surround us.” [My emphasis]

Wednesday, 22 February 2012

Here's Naftali Bennett, founder of the national movement MyIsrael, delivering a few home truths before the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organisations in Jerusalem this week regarding what he sees as the undermining of Israel from within ...

"We all know that the consequences of inaction will be horrific. Winston Churchill once said, “the further back you look, the further forward you can see.” If you want to understand this regime’s intent, look at its track record. Exactly 30 years ago, this same government massacred ten thousand of its own people in Hama in a single campaign. Nothing has changed.

Bashar al-Assad is systematically murdering civilians. His tanks are trampling on the rights of peaceful protestors. His forces are raping and torturing men, women and children. Assad has no moral authority to govern. With every home that is destroyed by a mortar, with every youth that is struck by a sniper bullet, with every person that is tortured, the twisted moral compass of this regime comes into greater focus.

Bashar-al Assad may have been trained as an eye doctor, but in practice he only tries to blind the international community to the crimes of his regime. The international community can no longer afford to see the situation in Syria with anything less than 20/20 vision.

More than 6,000 have been killed since the uprising began. How many more innocents must die before the world acts? As the death toll rises, so does our moral obligation. Our common humanity binds us together. And these bonds are now being put to a test.

It is time for the international community to stop standing on the sidelines watching murder after murder. It is time for the voices of the victims to finally unite the voice of the world against the tyrant of Damascus. It should be obvious that Assad and his regime have no moral authority to govern. And it is high time for this organization to start doing something meaningful to stop him from killing his own people. The children of Syria – from Homs to Hama - cry out to us. Their fate is in our hands." [My emphasis]

Pretty clear and unequivocal, surely.

As clear, in fact, as this utterance of Israeli Foreign Minister Avi Lieberman some months ago:

"I think, for everybody who saw in the last week on the TV screens the repression and the atrocities, the conclusion is very simple and very clear: President Assad must resign as soon as possible, and it's despite all our bilateral relations with Syria. For everybody who respects human rights and democratic values, it's really unacceptable what we see today in Syria ... I worry. All normal people ... we worry about the situation within Syria. We are worried about the innocent people who are suffering ... it's a very bad sign and a very bad message if this regime and if this president will survive and if he will succeed in suppressing these protests and uprising." [My emphasis]

Evidently, neither veteran Israel-bashing British journalist Robert Fisk of The Independent, nor experienced Australian broadcaster Kerry O'Brien of the ABC, were paying attention to either statement.

For on yesterday's Four Corners programme entitled "Syria Exposed" O'Brien listened indulgently while Fisk (interviewed for about a quarter of an hour) laid into Israel, claiming that, like Iran, Israel is "frightened" at the propect of "losing" Assad:

"...the problem is ... the Israelis are constantly saying, ‘well we don't like Bashar, but we're frightened of what will happen afterwards'. [Emphasis added]

As for the Iranian nuclear menace, Fisk had this to say, inter alia:

"Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran – who's just about as cracked as the Foreign Minister, Lieberman, of Israel [Emphasis added] – he rages and rages, he's a crackpot, but he is not the man in charge of nuclear power and he's certainly not the man in charge of the Iranian military; and Khamenei, the Supreme Leader – not a man I'm very fond of – has said repeatedly that any use of nuclear weapons is against the rule and will of God. As long as he keeps saying that, I don't think Iran is going to launch an attack."

For a full account and analysis, see AIJAC's article here
Hat tip: Jack S

Among those giving their opinions are leftwing Israeli columnist Larry Derfner (see more of his views on this issue here) and the well-known Middle East analyst Professor Barry Rubin (see his recent blog here) ...

Tuesday, 21 February 2012

They were soundly rebuked on their home turf by Jewish passers-by from North America not so long ago, if you recall this incident

In this video we see members of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign taking their hate message on 4 February to Hatton Garden, centre of London's diamond trade.

They are confronted by a Jewish trader in his doorway, who politely tells them a few home truths, while later another diamond trader, who is not Jewish, informs them "This tells me you're antisemitic".

An Israeli supporter of theirs is interviewed by them at length ... (Prepare to be nauseated.)

Then watch them laugh and jest after a passer-by, recognising them as "the usual suspects", berates them for their obsession with Israel ...

For an excellent and important article on the BDS movement see this
See also this article
(Hat tip Ian G)

Monday, 20 February 2012

Here's more, via the antipodean J-Wire service, about the UNESCO scandal by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer, originator of this petition. This latest article is entitled 'UNESCO Must Choose – "Palestine" or the World'

Writes David Singer:

'The Obama administration formally announced its intention this week to ask Congress to waive a ban on American funding of 22% of UNESCO’s budget following UNESCO’s decision to admit “Palestine“ as its 195th member state on 31 October 2011.

The announcement did not come in a White House press release from President Obama. Rather it was surreptitiously tucked away in an innocuous footnote to the budget that the White House presented to Congress – which contained the following statement:

“The Department of State intends to work with Congress to seek legislation that would provide authority to waive restrictions on paying the U.S. assessed contributions to UNESCO”

The State Department has squirreled away nearly $79 million into its 2013 budget in the hope that Congress will grant a legal waiver allowing such American funding to UNESCO to be restored.

That this is a forlorn hope was signalled by Rep.Ileana Ros-Lehtinen – the Chairperson of the US House of Representatives International Relations Committee – who stated:

“Any effort to walk back this funding cutoff will pave the way for the Palestinian leadership’s unilateral statehood scheme to drive on, and sends a disastrous message that the U.S. will fund UN bodies no matter what irresponsible decisions they make”

American funding of UNESCO was cut off automatically under U.S. legislation dating back to the 1990s, which mandated the spending freeze for any UN agency granting full membership to Palestine before the conclusion of an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement. This law recognized that any such unilateral decisions would work against – rather than assist – any such agreement ever being concluded.

This loss of American funding will result in a black hole of $260 million in UNESCO ‘s budget to 2013.
UNESCO’s Director General – Ms Irina Bokova – has already signalled she is looking at achieving an overall cut of 29% in UNESCO programs for 2012 -2013 – which will adversely impact on UNESCO’s proposed global programs for the benefit of scores of millions of people over the next two years.

Ms Bokova intends to reveal where she will be making her proposed cuts at the next meeting of UNESCO’s Executive Board commencing on 27 February.

Desperate to replace this lost American funding Ms Bokova has been accepting “donations” from some countries such as Turkey, Gabon and Timor Leste – which are conditional on being spent in those countries or neighbouring States – irrespective of where they rank in UNESCO’s scheme of priorities.

This will lead to even greater curtailment or abandonment of other programs – as UNESCO’s decision making power is subordinated to the demands of these individual states.

The US State Department needs to rethink its view that only an explicit waiver of the law can now free up American funding to avert the humanitarian crisis staring UNESCO in the face.

There is an alternative option that has been with UNESCO for almost three months – an alternative which UNESCO has refused to even discuss.

It involves UNESCO seeking an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice on the following two legal issues relating to Palestine’s admission to UNESCO in breach of UNESCO’s own constitution:

What are the requirements that qualify an applicant to be admitted as a member state of UNESCO under its Constitution and were these requirements satisfied in the case of “Palestine“?

What were the number of votes required under the Constitution to admit “Palestine” as a member state of UNESCO?

The cost to UNESCO of having these issues determined by the International Court would be $100000 in my estimate.

UNESCO’s continuing refusal to even discuss the merits of the legal arguments advanced in questioning the legality of its decision to admit Palestine – indicates that UNESCO has no answer to the detailed submission given to it.

Even if UNESCO sought to rebut that submission – then there still is a need for those two competing viewpoints to be judicially resolved.

In failing to approach the Court – UNESCO is clearly signalling that it is more interested in protecting its decision on “Palestine” from judicial review – rather than finding a possible legal way out of such decision – thus enabling it to regain the lost American funding and so allow its existing global programs to be maintained. .
Continuing to play a narrow political game at the expense of a vast all embracing global humanitarian game can only have serious repercussions for UNESCO’s continued existence and relevance in the future.
If UNESCO is so confident of its legal position then spending $100000 to have that opinion set in stone will be money well spent and will result in the Court clarifying and defining the meaning of the Constitution when future applications for membership are made.

Ironically it is not a waiver of the law that the State Department should be futilely spending its time and effort trying to achieve. Rather it should be whispering in UNESCO’s ear the virtues of subjecting its decision to the law to try and get a favorable ruling that would immediately release the withheld American funds.

That of course would mean the demise of Palestine’s membership of UNESCO. Would that be so bad – if in fact it was found to have been granted in breach of UNESCO’s Constitution?

UNESCO is apparently not yet ready to face up to such a prospect. Until it does – people around the world will continue to suffer.'

Sunday, 19 February 2012

Alas! It's so typical of the BBC that as soon as Foreign Secretary William Hague warns that a nuclear-armed Iran could lead to a Cold War in the Middle East even worse than the one which existed between the USSR and the Western powers, it calls in the nay-sayers to undermine the argument.

True, an alternate viewpoint provides the balanced reportage that Al Beeb is obligated by its Charter to provide yet conspicuously lacks, especially regarding the Middle East. But to quote not one but two pundits (in addition to politicians) who contradict Hague weights the scales well away from equilibrium and smacks of deliberate propagandising.

Indeed, Al Beeb has turned for comment to a seemingly archetypal FCO Arabist, former Ambassador to Iran Sir Richard Dalton, who retired from the Diplomatic Service in 2006 and became an associate of Chatham House, specialising in the Middle East and North Africa.

From 1993-97 he was Britain's consul-general in Jerusalem. In 1994 the then mayor of that city, Ehud Olmert, slammed as "apartheid" his plans, reflecting British policy, to hold separate Jewish and Arab functions in celebration of the Queen's birthday. Mr Dalton, as he was at the time, was quoted in The Times as saying: "The real problem is the use of Israeli power in Jerusalem." (Jewish Chronicle, 17 July 1994)

Following three years as Britain's ambassador to Libya, Sir Richard became ambassador to Iran, which had refused to accept in that post fluent Farsi-speaker and Iran-expert David Reddaway on the erroneous assumption that he was a Jew (with links to MI6 for good measure).

Guardian journalist Jonathan Freedland – a frequent critic of Israeli policy who hardly merits the term rabid Zionist – noted in the Jewish Chronicle (27 November 2009) that Dalton was

'one of the star turns on this month's Dispatches probe into the pro-Israel lobby. If that programme played with a few of the most time-honoured tropes – a shadowy group of rich Jews pulling the strings of powerless politicians – than Dalton helpfully played on a few more.'

Freedland quoted Dalton as follows:

"What's unique about the pro-Israel lobbies is that they have good access to politicians, often operate behind the scenes and have primary regard – even though they may come from Britain – not for the interests of the British people but for a mixture of what they see as British interests and the interests of another country." [My emphasis]

Commented Freedland sarcastically:

'Powerful, secretive, unpatriotic, and with allegiance to a foreign power – all in a single sentence! Give that man a prize for sheer economy of language.'

Sir Richard, who spoke in the recent debate at the Cambridge Union in support of the motion "This House Would Rather Have A Nuclear Iran Than War", is quoted on the Al Beeb website thus:

"There are many signs, as reported by the International Atomic Energy Agency, that some research and development relevant to the development of nuclear weapons may still be going on.

But it is wrong to say that Iran is rushing towards having a nuclear weapon.

Indeed, the analysis published to the United States Congress by the top intelligence assessors there indicates that Iran has not taken a decision to have a nuclear weapon."

And despite signs that the regime of the mullahs, and Ahmadinejad himself, believes that strife and mayhem is a necessary prelude to the coming of the Twelfth Imam, young Shashank Joshi of the Royal United Services Institute has this phlegmatic message, which Al Beeb includes near the beginning of the same report:

"If we could live with nuclear weapons in the hands of totalitarian, genocidal states like Stalin's Russia or Mao's China, Iran in contrast – whatever its repulsive internal policies and adventurism abroad – is far more rational."

Friday, 17 February 2012

The website of Press TV, Iran's 24/7 satellite progaganda news channel that recently lost its licence to broadcast in Britain, carries a long over-the-top antisemitic rant by a bloke called Peter Eyre, described as "Middle East Consultant".

The fact that the article is headed "BBC hikes up the Zionist propaganda machine" points to its crackpot nature.

Here's a taste of Eyre's ire:

"We now see another “Imperialistic Empire” taking its place know as the “New World Order” (NWO) with its headquarters firmly embedded in the City of London.

This evil satanic organisation, consisting mainly of Zionists and very senior members of the Freemasons have spread their evil tentacles over most of the UK and launched this country on a programme of continuous conflicts and war.

The NWO controls world finances, world politics, the UN, WHO, the ICJ, the judicial system, education, police and the military via its arm - NATO.

The heartland of the NWO are the Rothschild’s, members of the EU Royal Families, the Pilgrim Society, the very senior members of the Freemason´s (including many MP´s and members of the House of Lords), the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House London), Friends of Israel and The Bank of England etc.

There is a steady stream of politicians that pay regular visits to Chatham House to pledge their support for Israel with our current Prime Minister David Cameron, his deputy Nick Clegg and many others such as former PM Gordon Brown and Tony Blair, Ken Clarke, William Hague, George Osborne to name but a few. It is in the bowels of this building where they swear their allegiance to Zionists backed groups and Israel (their funders) instead of our own country.

Many people in this country do not realise that our dear BBC also forms part of this same satanic rot and is highly funded by the pro-Israeli groups that manipulate everything we hear and see....

.... It is common knowledge that students in the US, many being from Berkeley, are hired by either the CIA or Israel to participate in international unrest and frequently act as agents by infiltrating into the ranks of activists or even groups of militia. They have their education paid for in return for such activity and at a given time they pass on the names and locations of key figures to the CIA or Israeli secret service who then plan a drone attack or assassinate the person concerned.

Palestine is also a breeding ground for such activity (Gaza and West Bank) whereby the organisations are basically run by so-called “Jewish Sympathisers” who in some cases appear to turn their backs on their own faith and Israel. This is an entirely false front and these members - “Enemies of Israel”- are allowed to transit Israel to and from Gaza and West Bank without restriction having been previously deported for supporting Gaza (Palestinians) or for causing unrest. This in itself is evidence that they are carrying out undercover work for the CIA or Israel.

I could offer you a long list of names (traitors) and prove that many so-called charities have now been infiltrated by Zionist or Pro-Israeli supporters who are involved in such operations. I find this extremely upsetting when one considers the vast sums of money they obtain from the citizens of the world who want to help the Palestinians but in actual fact are feeding the money directly into Israel and at the same time are getting key Palestinians assassinated by their deceitful ways.

Back to the BBC propaganda machine, another bogus report also hit the headlines when the BBC stated the following: “Car bombs 'target Israel envoys' in India and Georgia” and immediately printed the following statement from Israel (their funders)....

Let´s recall the same style of assassinations that were used against the nuclear scientists in Tehran which was believed to have been the work of either the CIA, MI5 or Mossad. Exactly the same usage of motorcyclist etc clearly points to yet again another “False Flag Statement” that the BBC is so good at publishing!....

It was the same BBC that reported the following, on 25 December 2009, a Nigerian student smuggled explosives on to a flight from Schiphol to Detroit in the US after flying into Amsterdam from Lagos. He has pleaded guilty to trying to blow up the Northwest Airlines jet he boarded and is due to be sentenced on Thursday. He faces life imprisonment. I can assure you that this again was a false flag and it is an Israeli company that is responsible for security at Amsterdam airport....

In conclusion one must also remember that westered Special Forces, CIA, MI5, Mossad, hired militia and snipers are operating within Syria causing severe unrest and in many cases are directly responsible for the death of many innocent Syrian civilians. Such is the evil state of western foreign policy that is funded primarily by Israel.'

Here's America's former ambassador to the UN again, talking sense about the Ahmadinejad regime's inexorable march towards nuclear capability, its worrying implications for Israel, how talk of sanctions lulls the West into "a false sense of security", how Obama appears to fear a military strike more than he does a nuclear Iran, and how we're running out of time if we intend to do what we should have done four years ago:

Thursday, 16 February 2012

"Where does the BBC get these people from?" That's a question that must have passed through the minds of pro-Israel viewers and listeners scores of times, given the types of commentators (including an apologist for the Muslim Brotherhood) Al Beeb regularly invites into its studios to pontificate on this or that development in the Middle East.

(It was, though, pleasing to see that it had the good sense to interview the superb Douglas Murray today, regarding the scandalous situation imposed on Britain by the European Court of Human Rights, which forbids the extradition of danger-posing radical Muslim cleric Abu Qatada to Jordan because of fears for his personal safety, never mind that of the British population in general.)

Andrew Bolt, the popular columnist for the Melbourne Herald Sun newpaper, has posed a comparable question - "Where does the ABC get these people from?" - in his latest online article.

It was provoked by the appearance on the ABC (Australia's answer to Al Beeb in more ways than one) of Iranian-born former Guardian journalist Geneive Abdo, giving her take on the terror attacks this week on Israeli envoys in India and Georgia.

In answer to the radio interviewer's observation that, in order to discredit Iran, Israel had planted the bombs, Ms Abdo replied

"Well I think that’s entirely possible. I mean, if you consider what the Israelis did for many years in Lebanon and other parts of the Middle East, that theory is not so farfetched"

and went on to say of the current situation:

"...[Y]ou have the Israelis not willing to live with a nuclear Iran. You have the Iranians going forward with their nuclear program. And you have an American president trying to be re-elected with a Jewish lobby in the United States that’s extremely powerful....

[W]e’re dealing with a very extremist Israeli government.

Read all of Bolt's piece here and Honest Reporting's analysis of the incident and its implications here
Hat tip: readers Rita and Ian G

Here's a freshly uploaded video concerning notorious Adelaide Holocaust Denier Fredrick Toben, whose name is made to sport an umlaut, and who appears at the beginning talking about "the persecutor" ...

The viewer is left guessing as to exactly when the video was made, what the "total victory"mentioned is, to what precisely fellow-Aussie Lady Renouf refers in her speech, or who her listeners are.

I include this video here just for the record. Note the uploader's introduction:

'In 1999 he [Toben] was imprisoned for nine months at Mannheim Prison for breaching Germany's Holocaust Law, Section 130, that prohibits anyone from "defaming the dead". Töben and his associates at the Adelaide Institute have denied "being Holocaust deniers" in interviews conducted by Australian media, claiming they cannot deny that which never happened.'

Tuesday, 14 February 2012

For what a magnificent speech by Australian legislator Kelly O'Dwyer, Liberal member for Higgins, in yesterday's debate in the House of Representatives concerning Human Rights (or rather, the lack of them) in Iran.

All praise to to her for highlighting so ably and comprehensively the unconscionable hypocrisy of the Greens:

"In Australia during this time one must ask the questions 'Who stands conspicuously quiet? Who stands silent while these human rights are abused?' .... It is ... the Greens, those people who suggest that they are the champions of human rights and the keepers of the moral chalice, those professed keepers of all that is right and ethical. Where, I ask you, is Senator Brown in condemning these actions? Where is Senator Hanson-Young on her soapbox demanding justice? Where is the member for Melbourne, Adam Bandt, in this chamber supporting this motion? Where are the Greens protests in the streets? Most importantly, given all that we have learned about the Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions scheme that grew from the Greens' local council movement in Marrickville, where are the calls for the boycotts of Iranian companies or even of Syrian ones, to be truly consistent? No, all that is simply reserved for Israel.

Interestingly, the Greens also profess to be strong champions of human rights, particularly for those who are homosexual. Yet it is the country of Israel, the only democracy in the region, that legislates rights for women and homosexuals. In fact, in a recent poll conducted by GayCities.com in conjunction with American Airlines, Tel Aviv was rated the best gay travel destination of 2011. Yet here the Greens condemn Israel and not Iran.

Could you imagine if the Prime Minister of Israel had prayed for the ‘annihilation’ of the Palestinians? How many motions would the Greens have moved by now? How many press releases, demonstrations and media conferences would they have called? I conducted a search on the Greens' website. I typed ‘Iran’ into their search feature, 23 results were returned and in those results there was not one mention—not one, single, solitary mention—of the atrocities that have taken place, of the abhorrent preachings of the President of Iran or of the blatant human rights abuses posed against ethnic minorities, women and homosexuals. However, if you type in ‘Israel’ you will find pages and pages and pages—in particular pages as to how you can be involved as well in the BDS movement. This is a truly sad state of affairs and it is of great concern in particular to me that the Greens do not stand with us in this chamber against such violence against human rights workers, women’s rights activists, journalists and government opponents.

The Greens seem to quote the UN when it suits them and ignore them when it does not conform to their agenda. And make no mistake: the Greens' agenda on Israel is well and truly on show. It is incumbent upon all of us who, at times, take our freedoms for granted to stand up for those who do not share the same freedoms. I call on all members of this parliament, including the Greens - including Senator Bob Brown - to support this motion and to highlight the atrocities and depravity of the Iranian government and to stand up for the fact that these depravities must come to an end. For too long we have turned a blind eye to the signs that have been staring us in the face, and we must not accept what is unacceptable. I call on the Greens to stand with us in this chamber and support the human rights that are being abused in Iran and to make a very strong and public statement about it.”

Those remarks came at the end of her speech, which began by condemning "the abhorrent and repugnant human rights abuses that are currently occurring in the so-called Republic of Iran" and after she bemoaned the dashed expectations of the so-called Arab Spring:

"We did not want Israel to continue to stand as the lone beacon of democracy in the Middle East. Alas, on the ground, the Arab Spring has not matched the anticipation. For all of the hopes that we had, the people of Iran, Syria, Libya and Bahrain have been met with bullets,aggression and brutality...."

She then focused on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, before launching that well-deserved attack on the Greens:

"One needs only look at a number of his public statements to discover the depths of this so-called leader’s depravity. On the state of Israel he has stated that it ‘must be wiped off the map’ and that ‘with God’s grace this regime will be annihilated and Palestinians and other regional nations will be rid of its bad omen’.

On the Holocaust he has said:

“Some European countries insist on saying that Hitler killed millions of innocent Jews in furnaces and they insist on it to the extent that if anyone proves something contrary to that they condemn that person and throw them in jail … we don’t accept this claim.”

He went on to say:

“They, Germans or Europeans, have invented a myth that Jews were massacred and place this above God, religions and the prophets.”

On Zionists - read Jews - he has said:

“The Zionists and their protectors are the most detested people in all of humanity, and the hatred is increasing every day.”

And he has said:

“The world powers established these filthy bacteria, the Zionist regime, which is lashing out at the nations in the region like a wild beast.”

Finally, on the 60th anniversary of the state of Israel’s independence, he said:

“Those who think they can revive the stinking corpse of the usurping and fake Israeli regime by throwing a birthday party are seriously mistaken.”

Any one of these statements on its own warrants immediate condemnation, yet this despicable vitriol is left unchallenged and has been left unchallenged too often and for too long. It is only now that the world is starting to take notice of Iran. It is only after the tragic loss of life that the world is paying Iran the attention it should have paid many years before.

Words of a tyrant lead to deeds of a tyrant. It should come as no surprise that the owner of such vile words could be a perpetrator of such vile acts. The only question that remains is: how many people must continue to die before the international community stands against such repression?"

Monday, 13 February 2012

"Iran is a genuine existential threat to us ... and the whole of Western civilisation," stresses the veteran Jewish leader and Jerusalem Post columnist in an interview with Mark Golub on Shalom TV. "I would like to believe the world is coming to its senses ...I do not believe that sanctions alone are going to stop these people."

The Adass community in Melbourne is a tight-knit one that keeps largely to itself. It is centered on the district of Ripponlea, and its shul is in a quiet spot not far from the magnificent old colonial mansion that gave the district its name. It's very near the perhaps incongruously-named Hotham Street (geddit?), where each Shabbat numerous Jews in traditional strictly Orthodox garb can be seen going to and coming from one of the relevant shuls in the area.

For a number of years I lived in the heart of this district, surrounded by members of the Adass community. Although I was not one of them, I found them delightful neighbours. And although I was not one of them, I occasionally experienced the harassment that is often the lot of Jews like them whose dress leaves no doubt as to what their identity is. Thus, as a pedestrian on heavily Jewish Hotham Street, I once experienced a small stone whizz past my head (the lout who hurled it from a car also yelled antisemitic abuse) and on another occasion a carload of goons called out to me "Hitler is coming!" It's the type of thing that many Jews endure from yobbos every day.

In Australia, overt antisemitism used to be largely the preserve of post-war immigrants from continental fascist backgrounds and of the homegrown right-wing League of Rights, founded in 1946 by Eric Butler, an elder of the Anglican church. Most of the League's members believed in crackpot "funny money" ideas and in conspiracy theories, and for many years they ran a bookshop in central Melbourne stocked with all the "classics" of judeophobic literature. Time, it would seem, has carried away most of these nutters to that land from which no traveller ever returns.

Not that the political Left, as we know, has been immune from manifesting "the longest hatred" but I can't think of any instance in which the Left, at least in any English-speaking country, would stoop so low as to target a synagogue. (Imagine how they would react if rightwing extremists targetted a mosque!)

But that is reportedly what they aimed to do, if a current report is correct, and what's more, the Adass congregation was the one in their sights.

The report (written in three stages, including updates) claims, inter alia, that

'Australia’s Jewish community is bracing itself for a horrifying escalation by the “Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions” movement notionally against Israel but increasingly seen as thinly-disguised anti-Semitism.

[A] group led by former Melbourne University student union official Vashti Kenway has instructed its troops to take their Israel-hating protests to Adass Israel synagogue during the time it would have Jewish religious services, on Saturday February 25th. The protest is aimed at Rabbi Joseph Gutnick, a strong supporter of Israel, in whose honour the centre accommodating the synagogue is named....

Increasingly, Kenway and her band of protesters are blurring the lines between hating Israel and engaging in blatantly anti-Semitic protests. The move to attack a synagogue during religious services is the most blatant act in that direction we’ve seen across Australia.

Kenway’s protests have previously targeted Israeli-owned chocolate shops on the basis that some of their chocolate had been sent to the young men and women who protect Israel from those sworn to its destruction. Her behaviour was such that she and a group of comrades have been arrested and prosecuted for their riotous behaviour....

[Update] Shock and fear has swept the congregation of the Adass Gutnick Hall after learning their synagogue could be the victim of an attack by an anti-Israel group. One congregant, Norman Rosenbaum has emailed his concerns to friends, revealing that Mr Gutnick himself does not regularly attend the venue, expressing fears the angry protesters may be become frustrated and violent at the congregation if the target of their enmity is not present....

[Update] We are pleased to say the “Boycott” bigots have ... backed off their plans to attack the Addas [sic] synagogue, which had previously been the victim of arson attacks. They have moved their silly protest to an office of a company associated with Gutnick. Just as stupid but much less harmful and destructive. Being concerned about the people of the Palestinian Authority is perfectly legitimate, although it’s interesting that those who suffer much more do not generate the same concern, but this sorry episode has amply demonstrated what we’ve always suspected that there is a hideous underbelly of anti-Semitism associated with those who wish to boycott Israel....'

Sunday, 12 February 2012

These western BDSers, they seem to like girls who are screamers, don't they!

Immediately below, a dollop of manic high-pitched screeching from a girl cheerleader of the so-called Coalition Against Israel Apartheid and Students For Palestine as she leads her robotically chanting cohorts on 10 February into the usual offensive and moronic leftist accusations against chocolatier Max Brenner - "There's blood in your hot chocolate" and "You're supporting genocide". Note the "Race Against Evil..." hyperbole in the introduction...

Morsels:

The level of ignorance prevalent can perhaps be gleaned by one of the uploader's dodgy spelling of Israel as "Isreal".

Saturday, 11 February 2012

In his latest article (entitled "UNESCO On The Nose") via the antipodean J-Wire service, Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer pinpoints five main reasons for opposition to his petition from some perhaps unexpected quarters, and urges a rethink on the part of those who have proved reluctant to sign. He also draws attention to a group he has set up on Facebook, called "Help Restore UNESCO's Funding" and urges readers to join.

Writes David Singer:

'UNESCO seems set to preside over a looming global humanitarian crisis as it continues to struggle in its efforts to cope with the loss of $260 million – 22% of its projected budget – until the end of 2013.
Trying to make up the shortfall – including lobbying America and Israel to resume the payment of their dues and establishing an Emergency Fund to solicit donations from its other 193 member states and the public at large – have clearly failed so far.

UNESCO‘s finds itself in this sorry situation because of its decision to admit “Palestine“ as its 195th Member State on 31 October last.

In an effort to recoup the shortfall – I have proposed to UNESCO that it approach the International Court of Justice for an advisory opinion on whether the requirements of UNESCO’s Constitution were satisfied in admitting “Palestine”.

If the Court rules that the provisions of the Constitution were complied with – then this avenue as a means of recouping the $260 million would be closed – but the provisions of the Constitution would have been judicially interpreted to prevent a repeat of the current controversy when dealing with other applications to join UNESCO in the future.

If however the Court found the decision to be unconstitutional – then the $260 million would start to flow into UNESCO’s coffers immediately and the emerging global crisis impacting on scores of millions of people world wide would be averted.

Faced with continuing UNESCO resistance to discuss my detailed submission to it on 1 December last – I started an online petition on 1 January seeking public support for this proposal – which has so far attracted more than 1000 signatures from people in 26 countries. Please also sign it if you agree with the views expressed in this article.

What has been surprising – and very disturbing – has been the opposition expressed to signing my petition – which I have been able to attribute to five main reasons gleaned from the responses received so far to my proposal:

Some have expressed their utter contempt for UNESCO and its continued existence – suggesting it has become ineffectual and politicized and should be shut down.
They delight in the financial difficulties being faced by UNESCO – which they see as a self-serving organization that exists to feed an over bloated bureaucracy of overpaid and well travelled employees – rather than spending its budget on helping the hundreds of millions of people world wide who are crying out for some hope to relieve their distressing lives.

Some Americans are supportive of their country’s decision to stop the payment of its financial dues – automatically suspended as a result of an American law dating back to the 1990’s which prescribed such action should any UN agency act as UNESCO did.

These people are more than happy to see this money – about $100million yearly – go towards helping America solve its own pressing domestic financial problems.
They are hostile to UNESCO‘s lobbying attempts to try and get America to change its law or to otherwise circumvent the legislation to get America‘s dues back via some back door manoeuvre.

Some have shown a total lack of concern or compassion for the difficulties facing hundreds of millions of people world wide if UNESCO is forced to curtail its humanitarian assistance.

This attitude was succinctly expressed in the following comment:
“Palestine suffers from the actions of the world, the world can suffer from Palestine for once”

Some have expressed no confidence in the International Court being able to arrive at a fair and unbiased opinion – a waste of time and money

By far the largest number of those refusing to sign the petition are those who are opposed to UNESCO taking any steps that could possibly lead to Palestine’s admission to UNESCO being ruled unconstitutional.

People are entitled to their viewpoints – and to be criticised for holding those views. I have urged many expressing these views to think again and sign the petition – but to no avail.

UNESCO cannot allow its decision on Palestine – and its dire consequences – to simply end in UNESCO cutting its programs and its employees for 2102-2013 in accordance with a drastically revised budget – until it has explored every option to avoid this happening.

The consequences of such program cutting will clearly impact on the lives of millions of people world-wide. UNESCO would be clearly irresponsible if it failed to take any possible action available to arrest this emerging humanitarian landslide.

Spending $100000 approaching the International Court in the hope of avoiding this parlous situation is an option that UNESCO should grab with both hands.

The International Court cannot possibly hope to satisfy all of the above objectors.

If Palestine’s admission to UNESCO is found to be lawful – those espousing the views in groups 3 and 5 above will be happy and the rest will not . The status quo now existing will be maintained.

If Palestine’s admission to UNESCO is found to be unlawful – only those in group 4 may be persuaded to rethink their view of the International Court. None of the other 4 groups will be happy – but the status quo existing at 30 October 2011 will be restored – for better or for worse.

UNESCO should not be afraid to institute such legal action for fear of upsetting these objectors – since the number of people signing and still continuing to sign my petition clearly outnumber those opposed to signing it.

I urge everyone – in favour of or opposed to UNESCO approaching the International Court – to join, have their say and to follow developments as they unfold at UNESCO and in the international arena..

UNESCO needs to be very careful that it does not create the impression that it can ignore its own constitution with impunity. Its failure to even discuss my detailed submission on the legality of its decision renders it open to such a charge and only serves to reduce its status and credibility among those signing the petition.
Seeking to resolve the current impasse by resorting to the law is not a known or an accepted practice in a large number of the 195 member states that make up UNESCO – where the rule of law and respect for the law in such countries is unknown.

Approaching the International Court in the present circumstances will help these states understand this still remains the best system yet devised for finally resolving issues between people with different viewpoints.

The law is not perfect and its decisions are often controversial and open to criticism and different interpretations.

Friday, 10 February 2012

A threat of cyberwarfare against Israel has been unleashed by an international group of hackers. Their video and a report can be seenhere

The text of the video (which I've since added below) runs as follows. (Spot the old-style antisemitic tropes).

"To the government of the state of Israel.

We are Anonymous.

For too long we have tolerated your crimes against humanity and allowed your sins to go unpunished.

Through the use of media deception and political bribery, you have amassed the sympathies of many. You claim to be democratic, yet in reality this is far from the truth.

In fact your only goal is to better the lives of a select few while carelessly trampling the liberties of the masses. We see through the propaganda that you circulate through the main stream media and lobby through the political establishment.

Your Zionist bigotry has displaced and killed a great many.

As the world weeps you laugh while planning your next attack. All of this is done under the veil of peace but so long as your regime exists peace shall be hindered.

You label all who refuse to comply with your superstitious demands as anti-semitic. And have taken steps to ensure a nuclear holocaust.

You are unworthy to exist in your current form. and will therefore face the wrath of anonymous. Your empire lacks legitimacy and because of this you must govern behind a curtain of deceit.

We will not allow you to attack a sovereign country based upon a campaign of lies.

Your grip over humanity will weaken and man will be closer to freedom.

But before this is accomplished the people of this world will rise against you and renounce you in all your worth. Our crusade against your reign of terror shall commence in three steps.

Step one will be initiated after the release of this video and will be comprised of systematically removing you from the internet.

Step two will be later disclosed and is already in initiation.

And as for step three, well think of this one as a present from Anonymous to you. We will not stop untill the police state becomes a free state.

The British "Stop The War Coalition" held a demo outside the American Embassy in London at the end of January to demand that no action be taken against Iran for its impending nuclear capablity. That well-known anti-Israel activist Jeremy Corbyn MP introduced others of his ilk such as the first speaker, Anthony Wedgwood Benn (Tony Benn as he likes to be known to the plebs), and flytilla alumna Sarah Colborne, executive director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

Here's a taste of the nonsense, uploaded by InMinds.com, which prefaces the uploads with this message:

"As the US and Israel ratchet up the rhetoric in preparation for an attack on Iran, hundreds of Londoners demonstrated outside the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square on 28th January 2012. The protest was organised by the Stop the War Coalition."

Thursday, 9 February 2012

If the morally courageous and highly articulate young man in the first video below did not exist, Britain's pro-Israel supporters would certainly have to invent him. He's the marvellous author and journalist Douglas Murray, speaking recently in a debate at the Cambridge Union on the motion "This House Would Rather Have A Nuclear Iran Than War".

Speaking in favour of the motion were former Middle East-based diplomat Sir Richard Dalton (now of Chatham House), journalist Michael Smith, who specialises in defence issues, and Professor Scott Lucas, a specialist in American Studies at Birmingham University.

Opposing the motion were Murray, Dr Alan Mendoza, executive director of the Henry Jackson Society, and Professor Mervyn Frost, who heads the War Studies Department at King's College, London.

The Noes carried the day, with 100 votes, ten more than the Ayes mustered (there were 77 abstentions):

And here's Dr Alan Mendoza, to whom Murray refers in his speech, who also helped so ably to carry the day:

See the entire debate and read more about the speakers for each side here

Wednesday, 8 February 2012

Yesterday marked the 60th anniversary of the accession of Queen Elizabeth II to the British throne (and so truly began this Jubilee Year of hers).

The leftists who infest Al Beeb's news programming could not just lie back and enjoy the historicity of the occasion, of course.

So, invited onto News24, was a bloke with the right royal name of Graham Smith. Smith has a right royal grievance about the monarchy - he heads a group called Republic - and he also has (or rather, had) a right royal gripe about the BBC.

A year ago, as the nation geared up for the Royal Wedding (Kate and Wills), Al Beeb gave Mr Smith a guest spot on its College of Journalism (CoJo) website, so he could rant at length.

(Al Beeb's other critics, especially those of us who bemoan its anti-American, anti-Israel thrust, and deplore its suppression of the Balen Report, should be as lucky!)

'The BBC has failed to convey the diversity of opinion about the monarchy. It has presented the issue as being one-sided and implied that the whole country is excited about the wedding. It has covered the plans and expectations of monarchists (who in a sense are also a minority) while ignoring Republic and republicans....

I believe one source of this problem is the BBC's failure to categorise the monarchy as a 'controversial issue'. I would stress that even without this categorisation our argument stands up and the Corporation's duty of impartiality applies. However, categorising this issue as controversial is not only appropriate, it would place greater emphasison the need of editorial staff to ensure balanced and impartial coverage....
The issue is regularly a subject of debate in the media and is certainly contentious.... [O]pinion is clearly divided on the various issues around the monarchy. A number of MPs support the abolition of the monarchy, including Caroline Lucas MP, leader of the Green Party [and, incidentally, a veteran critic of Israel - D.A.]. Parliament has recently debated reforming the finances and secrecy of the institution....

Republic is not alone in questioning the BBC's royal coverage: there is a widespread view that the BBC has a pro-monarchy bias, a view even shared by some of the Corporation's own distinguished journalists. Not least, apparently, Jeremy Paxman, who in 2008 accused the BBC of "fawning" over the royal family, adding that the BBC did not know whether to "report" or "celebrate" royal events. I would suggest that the job of the BBC is to report, yet instead it ends up celebrating.

And that is why Republic is seeking a meeting with BBC executives, asking for a review of royal reporting and a fairer, more balanced and more representative take on the issue of the monarchy.'

BBC executives obviously caved into him. It was surely on the cards that they would. After all, it has been some years since Al Beeb instructed its staff not to refer to Wales as "The Principality" anymore (even though, constitutionally, a principality is exactly what Wales is) for fear of offending Welsh republicans!

"We love plurality on the BBC, Graham Smith, but this is going to be a tough old year for you, isn't it?"

The interview started well but ended with Ms Maitlis (notwithstanding the expectation of neutrallity inherent in the BBC's much-flouted Charter) giving her own personal endorsement to Smith's closing statement that the institution of monarchy should be subject to scrutiny and criticism:

"I couldn't agree more with that statement."

So here's my message to Ms Maitlis and the gang. You want to put the right royal British Establishment right royally on the spot? You want to demonstrate afresh that love of pluralism, to ensure a voice for the dispossessed?

Right, then.

Next time a representative of the Foreign Office is interviewed, ask him/her point blank why, in her 60-year reign, the Queen has never once visited Israel (almost uniquely snubbed in this regard), whereas she has paid many visits to Arab countries, and when we can expect this right royal wrong to be put to rights.

In a region where women are stoned, gays are hanged, Christians are persecuted, Israel ... is different.... Of the 300 million Arabs in the Middle East and North Africa, only Israel's Arab citizens enjoy real democratic rights.... Israel is not what is wrong about the Middle East. Israel is what is right about the Middle East. Bibi Netanyahu (20 Iyar 5771; 24 May 2011)

A nuclear Iran threatens our existence

Iran and ISIS are competing for the crown of militant Islam... In this deadly game of thrones, there’s no place for America or for Israel, no place for Christians, Jews or Muslims who don’t share the Islamist medieval creed, no rights for women, no freedom for anyone... [T]he greatest danger facing our world is the marriage of militant Islam with nuclear weapons. To defeat ISIS and let Iran get nuclear weapons would be to win the battle, but lose the war. We can’t let that happen...[T]he days when the Jewish people remained passive in the face of genocidal enemies, those days are over. We are no longer scattered among the nations, powerless to defend ourselves. We restored our sovereignty in our ancient home. And the soldiers who defend our home have boundless courage. For the first time in 100 generations, we, the Jewish people, can defend ourselves....Even if Israel has to stand alone, Israel will stand. But ... I know that America stands with Israel... You stand with Israel, because you know that the story of Israel is not only the story of the Jewish people but of the human spirit that refuses again and again to succumb to history’s horrors. Bibi Netanyahu (12 Adar 5775; 3 March 2015)

The Jews are a peculiar people: things permitted to other nations are forbidden to the Jews. Other nations drive out thousands, even millions, of people, and there is no refugee problem.... [N]o one says a word about refugees. But in the case of Israel displaced Arabs have become eternal refugees.... Other nations - when they are defeated - survive and recover, but should Israel be defeated it would be destroyed.... [A]s it goes with Israel, so it will go with all of us. Should Israel perish the holocaust will be upon us. Eric Hoffer (1968)

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#Je suis ISRAEL

January 7, 2015 has already its place in the history of infamy, but also will be the date when the defenders of freedom and democracy will rise and pay tribute to those who died for their freedom and ours. Therefore, we must not forget on which side we are and who are our allies in the defense of the West and its values. Whether we admit it or not, the West is at war with an enemy who will not stop to destroy us...The State of Israel boasts a commandment that, in one of the darkest hours in the fight for liberty Winston Churchill taught: "Never give up". Israel has proven to be a key ally in the fight against Islamism and also an example of how a liberal democracy can resist the jihadist stake and thrive as a Western nation ... Not only France but also all the West should look to Israel to defeat Islamism...friendsofisraelinitiative.org

Jews have reassumed the role of the canary in the mine and are the first to be targeted, but the world would face the same threat if Jews did not exist. Israel has been at the frontlines confronting Islamic extremism but has received scant support... For Jews, the writing has been on the wall for a long time. The virulence of the antisemitic hatred closing in on Jews in Europe (and elsewhere) is horrifying... Europe is today facing a crisis as serious as the confrontation with Nazism. If Western leaders continue behaving like Chamberlain and fail to stand up to this global threat, it could usher in a new Dark Age in which the Judeo-Christian culture is subsumed by primitive barbarism. The writing is on the wall Isi Leibler (12 January 2015)

What has happened to the 800,000 Jews who lived for over 2000 years in the Arab lands ...? Where are they in Arab society today? You dare talk of racism when I can point with pride ... to the fact that it is as natural for an Arab to serve in public office in Israel as it is incongruous to think of a Jew serving in any public office in an Arab country, indeed being admitted to many of them. Chaim Herzog (6 Kislev 5736; 10 November 1975)

I stand with Israel, I stand with the Jews.... I defend their right to exist, to defend themselves, to not let themselves be exterminated a second time. And, disgusted by the antisemitism of many Europeans ... I am shamed by this shame that dishonours my country and Europe. Oriana Fallaci

For Western countries to side with those who question Israel's legitimacy, for them to play games in international bodies with Israel's vital security issues, for them to appease those who oppose Western values, rather than robustly to stand up in defence of those values, is not only a grave moral mistake, but a strategic error of the first magnitude. Israel is a fundamental part of the West. The West is what it is thanks to its Judeo-Christian roots. If the Jewish element of those roots is lost and Israel is lost, then we are lost too. Jose Maria Aznar

Israel is, for us, a normal and a special country. A normal country, because it is just like any other democracy. A special country, because the Jewish culture, which eventually became the Judeo-Christian culture of the dignity of man, is the conceptual foundation of liberalism and democracy. This is why attacking Israel is tantamount to attacking Europe and the West. This is also why disputing Israel's legitimacy and its right to existence means questioning democracy. And this is why we are Friends of Israel. By defending Israel, we are defending ourselves. Marcello Pera

Apart from America itself, Israel still stands as the world's brightest model of national self-liberation based on ideals of individual responsibility and human freedom. Israel's ability to withstand Arab attempts to destroy it in one of the longest and most lop-sided wars ever fought serves as an indelible testimony to the strength of democratic culture.... We know from the past that the West paid dearly for ignoring Hitler's war against the Jews. One can only hope it will not pay as dearly for having ignored or underestimated for so long the Arab war against Israel and the Jews. Ruth Wisse

With a liberal democratic political system operating under the rule of law, a flourishing market economy producing technological innovation to the benefit of the wider world, and a population as educated and cultured as anywhere in Europe or North America, Israel is a normal Western country with a right to be treated as such in the community of nations.... For the global jihad, Israel may be the first objective. But it will not be the last. Friends of Israel Initiative.

I am duty-bound to defend freedom, culture, peaceful coexistence, the civic education of children, and all the principles that the Tablets of the Law have rendered universal. Principles which Islamic fundamentalism systematically destroys. This means that, since I am a Gentile, a journalist and a leftist, I have a triple moral commitment to Israel. Because, if Israel were to be vanquished, modernity, culture and freedom would also be crushed. Even though the world has failed to wake up to this fact, Israel's struggle is the world's struggle. Pilar Rahola

Israel ... is beset today by a unique combination of threats. It must defend its people from attack while defending its very right to exist. No other nation in the world faces this dual challenge. To deny Israel's right to confront some of the world's most vicious terrorist groups in order to ensure the safety of its citizens is to corrode international norms from within ... The assault on Israel is one part of a more general assault on the West, on democracy, and on the moral and cultural heritage that grew from the fruitful interaction of Jerusalem, Athens, and Rome ... Should these efforts succeed, similar efforts will certainly be turned against other western democracies. George Weigel

The Jews of the Holy Land ... are surrounded by hostile states 650 times their territory and sixty times their population. Yet their last, best hope of ending two millennia of international persecution - the State of Israel - has somehow survived. When, during the Second World War, the island of Malta came through three terrible years of bombardment and destruction, it was rightly awarded the George Cross for bravery. Today, Israel should be awarded a similar decoration for defending democracy, tolerance and Western values against a murderous onslaught that has lasted twenty times as long. Andrew Roberts

Most of the present Arab countries were given their freedom after the 1914-18 War, or after the 1939-45 War.... Yet to listen to Arab spokesmen one might think that they had been cheated ... because they have not also got Israel. Israel is only .2 per cent of the land where Arab States have been established. Surely no fair-minded man can begrudge the Jews their own promised land when it is remembered that for every 2 acres that went to make up Israel, 1,000 acres became Arab.

.... Why is there an Arab refugee problem? The oil-rich countries have the money. There is no shortage of land, and the Israelis have the technical knowledge to show how it could be developed and made fertile. Bring those things together and the problem could be solved. 3rd Earl of Balfour (1968)

About Me

I'm a writer/researcher, with many academic books and articles under my own name. Daphne Anson is my blogging alias. Combining the names of two ships, it's a moniker of special significance to me - I'm a naval history buff. I use an alias owing to a perceived need to keep my blogging and professional identities separate. An Aussie, I've long been interested in
politics and foreign affairs, having studied International Relations in the USA and Britain for my first degree, and I also hold a doctorate. I began blogging in response to the exponential rise in antisemitism and hostility to Israel in the wake of the Mavi Marmara affair.

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The spiritual awakening which Jews experienced almost without exception last June must not be allowed to become a sealed and finished episode.... Support must be rallied among men of goodwill and their governments if we are to reach that secure and just peace in the attainment of which Israel has never ceased to believe. President Zalman Shazar (1968)

Our judicial system is one of the best in the whole world. Our democracy is the only one in the Middle East.... Just imagine, what would have happened if the Arabs had, like us, accepted the Partition resolution? There would be a Palestinian State living side by side in peace, security, and, I can add, prosperity with the State of Israel, 62 years later. [C]ome to Israel, and realize how small Israel is and what a wonderful place it is. Diplomat Gabriella Shalev (2010)

The choice before us is not between victory and defeat, but between victory and annihilation. We therefore have not the slightest intention of allowing the re-creation of the conditions of vulnerability in which we found ourselves, abandoned and alone, in the summer of 1967. Diplomat Michael Comay (1970)